Tarzan
US/ˈtɑɹzæn/
Tarzan proper noun: a heroic fictional character, raised from a baby to adulthood in the African jungle by apes.
Proper noun
Tarzan
Noun
Tarzan (plural Tarzans)
- A strong wild man; any man showing attributes of Tarzan, as muscularity, agility, etc.
- "My job is to grab him before he slaughters more." "He sounds a bit of a Tarzan." "A wild man right enough is Toowanor, but from his size you'd never imagine he was a killer."1937, Ion Idriess, Over The Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 47
- "[A]s if we all like climbing around in trees, like monkeys or Tarzans."1991 September 7, The Daily Telegraph, London, page 13
Verb
Tarzan (third-person singular simple present Tarzans, present participle Tarzaning, simple past and past participle Tarzaned)
- To behave in the manner of Tarzan, especially by swinging from ropes, climbing trees, and other feats of athleticism.
- Elmo Lincoln, that mighty man of valor who Tarzaned about, has issued a challenge to Jack Dempsey, and we wish him all the luck in the world.1919 August 16, “Hollywood Hokum”, in Motion Picture News, New York, page 1475, column 2
- Later in the evening a tree climbing contest was held. Paul Gipe was the only entry. However, judging from the manner in which he tarzaned up and down the big tree he would have had small competition.1935 July 23, “Here and There in Sports' Land”, in New Castle News, New Castle, PA, page 10, column 4
Tarzan meaning in Marathi and Arabic
Tarzan in Marathi
- fictional character
- टार्जन ṭārjan
Tarzan in Arabic
- fictional character
- طَرَزَان ṭarazān
Examples of Tarzan in a sentence
- PAYNE STEWART, beating his heart like a Tarzan, drummed out a message to the rest of the Open Championship field with three days to go before the off.1993 July 13, “Golf: Stewart in good heart”, in The Guardian, Manchester:
- The caption, of a Tarzan cruelly ravaged by time, is 'But even the beautiful can age.'1993 November 28, “You never forget a good nanny”, in The Guardian, Manchester:
- Once, when he was about 12, he had attached a rope to the roof, thrown the other end to the top of a tree and the next morning "Tarzaned" across from the tree to his parents' window.1953 March 21, The Advertiser, Adelaide, page 6, column 4:
- None of us had ever "Tarzaned" off a cliff[.]1992 September 13, “Shedding Inhibitions – and Even Clothes – on a Kauai Wilderness Tour”, in The Seattle Times, page 7:
Forms of Tarzan
| Proper noun | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Tarzan of the Apes |
| Noun | |
| plural | Tarzans |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | Tarzans |
| present participle | Tarzaning |
| past participle | Tarzaned |
| past | Tarzaned |
Origin of Tarzan
Coined by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912. A name created by Burroughs for his fiction. In the fictional ape language of the books, "tarzan" means "white-skin"; possibly echoic in its phonetics of various "exotic" names (see Orientalism).
Words formed from Tarzan
Phrases with Tarzan
Questions about Tarzan
- What does Tarzan mean?
- Tarzan means a heroic fictional character, raised from a baby to adulthood in the African jungle by apes.
- What is Tarzan in Marathi?
- Tarzan in Marathi is टार्जन (ṭārjan). See Tarzan meaning in Marathi.
- How do you use Tarzan in a sentence?
- PAYNE STEWART, beating his heart like a Tarzan, drummed out a message to the rest of the Open Championship field with three days to go before the off.
- What part of speech is Tarzan?
- Tarzan can be a proper noun, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce Tarzan?
- Tarzan is pronounced /ˈtɑɹzæn/ (US).
Words near Tarzan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Tarzan (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “Tarzan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tarzan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.